


i'll be holding on to you

by angstlairde



Series: duality, or, where flame meets rock [1]
Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Accidental Baby Acquisition, Found Family, Gen, In this case more like Child Acquisition, Momboss and Detectiveson, Non-Linear Narrative, until it is linear
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-04
Updated: 2019-02-28
Packaged: 2019-08-17 09:24:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 18,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16513640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angstlairde/pseuds/angstlairde
Summary: "Lin, there's a situation."Lin rolls her eyes and sets down her newspaper to look Mako in the eyes."What is it this time.""I, uh... seem to have acquired a kid."aka, the one were the-name-beifong-comes-with-the-title-of-chief and adopting sad street kids becomes a chief beifong tradition, aka, the one where mako acquires a child and everything comes full circle





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> man i just couldn't wait any longer to post this laksjdfa

iv.

"Aw, Chief Beifong is gonna kill us, man," Junior Officer Reiku whines. His partner Saru socks him in the head.

"And how is Chief Beifong gonna find out? We just gotta catch the thugs before our shift is over," Saru says, slinging an arm around Reiku's shoulders. "Bing, bang, boom, we lock 'em up and all's well."

Reiku gulps.

"Well... I already radioed the station. Beifong is on the way."

"What?!" Saru shouts, yanking his arm back and shoving Reiku in the shoulder.

"There a problem, fellas?"

The duo turn at the same time to face their extremely intimidating Chief Mako Beifong.

Saru and Reiku snap to attention, and Mako tries not to groan. Rookies. He raises an eyebrow.

"I hope I wasn't called out here all for nothing."

"Of course not, sir!" Saru exclaims. "It's, uh... you know how we were in the middle of a bust? It's just..." he glances at Reiku, who gestures with his head not-so-subtly at the chief.

"It's just...?" Mako prompts, crossing his arms.

"Well... we -"

"The Badgermoles got away!" Reiku blurts, immediately pummeled in the side by Saru.

Mako directs his glare at Saru.

"You were planning on telling me... right?"

"Of course, sir!" the nervous officer laughs. "That's, ya know, why we radioed you!"

"Right. Well, I'm gonna take a look around." He makes deliberate eye contact with first Saru, then Reiku. "Don't fuck anything else up."

 

  
i.  
_"You're retiring?!"_

_Lin glares at Mako from across the table._

_"What, did you think I was going to keep this position forever? I'm not fucking invulnerable."_

_Mako tries not to argue but you are, you're Lin Beifong, and resists the overreacting urge to pull at his hair._

_"Despite what any of us would like to think, I'm old. Have been for a while. I thought you wanted me to take it easy, Mako," she says with a raised eyebrow._

_Spirits, she's worse than Korra._

_"I know. I do," he insists, playing with the noodles on the end of his fork. "But... I dunno, I thought you'd still be chief."_

_Lin softens with a sigh._

_"Mako..." she waits for him to look at her before continuing. "It's not like I'm dying." He tenses, and Lin quickly changes the subject. "I'll be around. I can be your consultant," she suggests, and Mako's lips twist up in a smirk._

_"You'd be a fucking horrible consultant. All you would want to do is boss people around."_

_Lin laughs once, short._

_"Mako, I'm starting to think you don't want my help at all."_

_"Come on, Lin, don't be like that," Mako snorts, and passes the honey as she reaches wordlessly._

_"I'm just saying, if you want my help, you better be fucking happy with what I give you," she told him in a terse tone that most would mistake for sincere. Lin dumps a spoonful of honey into her tea and stirs briskly. "That being said, I don't think you'll need much in that department."_

_Mako snorts, takes a gulp of his lukewarm tea. It's not that he doubts his ability, it's just... he's never not had Lin within walking distance, shouting distance, even. It's going to be so weird._

_"I know," he says. "It'll just be different."_

 

v.

With the focus on the Triple Threats for so long, a gang Mako hadn't heard much of, the East Side Badgermoles, had been able to get away with a lot of things, extortion, mugging. With pro-bending back in business, betting was big, and he'd seen several matches that were decidedly fixed - a lot like the championship match against the Wolfbats, he thinks bitterly. He is pretty sure that's not even the tip of the fucksberg.

Mako had had everyone he could spare on the case. Reiku and Saru had been assigned this one, simple stake out, keep an eye on what was hopefully a Badgermole warehouse.  
And it had been.

He sighs, hands propped on his hips as he surveys the now-empty garage. Maybe he shouldn't be so hard on the rookies - it could have been deserted when they arrived. "Alright, fellas, what went down?" he asks, turning to face them.

"Well, uh, ya see, sir," Saru begins, in what Mako wants to call a placating tone, and makes him scowl. "We arrived around nine am, nothin' much happened until maybe... what do you reckon, Reiku?"

Reiku pipes up with a, "Probably one pm."

"Yeah, around thirteen hundred hours. Around one, a car drove up, and a couple thugs got out and entered the garage. Four went in - six came out, so naturally we investigated, but Reiku kicked a can and spooked all eight of the Badgermoles out of the nest and they grabbed the couple boxes and - and we lost them."

Fuck. Shit. Fucking fuck.

Mako doesn't know what to say, let alone think, so all he does his rub the bridge of his nose and sigh. _Spirits_ , please say he wasn't this bad as a rookie.

"Alright," he finally says, a points first at Saru, then Reiku. "You're going back to the station, writing this mess up, and you're sending out some competent detectives to replace you. Go, now, shoo."

He tunes out their grumblings and turns back to the garage. Mako wasn't made chief for nothing, so he checks out the walls, and then the door hidden behind a curtain. In hindsight, they probably shouldn't have spray painted the slap-dash Badgermoles symbol on the curtain: a green, squared B trapped within a triangle.  
The door is locked, which isn't surprising, but the wood is flimsy, and he kicks it open with one sturdy kick. The pro-bending training really pays off sometimes.

Inside is a rectangular room, with boarded up windows and a singular light bulb flickering dimly. Candles line a shelf on the wall, and there's a lantern sitting on the middle of a wide table pushed to the back wall. A short staircase lead up to another door that leads into the building above.

Mako cracks his knuckles and starts to search the cabinets on the opposite wall as the table, slicing through the locks easily with a small blade of fire. He digs out a lot of papers and files and dumps them on the table to begin skimming them, when he hears clattering the garage.

He stills. Listens. Soft footsteps, quick, probably a child. Mako creeps over to the doorway, pulls the curtain away just enough to peer out into the garage. There's a flash of green behind wooden slates propped up against the wall.

If it was kid, he would have to do this carefully. If this was a homeless kid, he'd have to do it even more carefully, because they were weren't just wary of adults, they were even more wary of police officers - such as himself. Mako sighed, rubbed the bridge of his nose, felt a headache coming on.

Well.

He coughs, hears another clatter. Pushes the curtain open and steps out into the garage.

"Hello?" he calls. "I'm not going to hurt you."

There's a clatter to the left by the open door, and then a small girl peers around the slates. Her face is dirty, her shirt too big and her pants to small, and her brown hair, so dark to almost be black, is tied up in a phoenix-tail.

"Hey there," Mako says softly, ignoring the stab of familiarness in his chest as he takes her appearance in. He crouches, slowly, waves. "Do you live here?"

The little girl's hands are clenched into fists, and she nods her head.

"Did the Badgermoles - the big men, did they scare you?"

Shakes her head no.

"Did... did they leave you here?"

All at once, her eyes fill with tears and a big sad pout appears on her face and she nods, slowly.

"Hey, hey, it's okay," Mako says placatingly, sitting down all the way lotus-style, and swallows down the lump in his throat. "Did you have family with them?"

A big fat tear slids down her face. She nods. Mako curses whoever left her behind, wants to strangle them.

"My daddy."

Her voice shocks him, hoarse, like she is sick, and he meets her dark green eyes for the first time. Her father... Mako clenches his jaw and tamps down the sudden raging fire in his veins.

"I'm Mako," he tells her, a hand on his chest. "I can help you."

The girl shrinks back into her corner, shakes her head.

"He said he would come back," she argues to the floor by his feet. "He said he would come back."

Mako curses again, inside and lets out the first syllable, before cutting himself off. Easy. Street kid. Skittish. Even if she was with her father - what an awful fucking excuse for a father - she was still a street kid, neglected, sick, he realizes as she wipes thick mucus off her nose and runs her hand on her filthy pants.

"What's your name, kid?" he asks carefully, but before he can get an answer a Sato-mobile rolls up with police sirens blaring, and the fellas that jump out startle the girl so badly that she takes off like a rocket, running past Mako, and then his men, and then she is gone before Mako could even stand up.

"What the fuck was that, Cheif?" someone asks, Jun, he thinks, but he heads is starting to hurt in earnest now and as he runs his forehead he says,

"Someone I almost helped."

 

  
  
ii.  
_"You haven't turned a page in the last seven minutes, Lin, what's up?" Mako askd, setting down his report from a break-in last night to face Lin across the table. After supper, whenever they could manage it, he and Lin sat down to go over their paperwork from the day. Usually, they got a lot done in the hours between nine and eleven PM, but for the last seven minutes, Lin has been staring at the same page._ _  
_

_Lin huffs, sets down her paper and looks him in the eye._ _  
_

_"Sometimes I wish I hadn't trained you so well," she deadpans, before huffing again and looking at the green and white linoleum tiles lining the kitchen floor._ _  
_

_"Come on, Lin. It's me."_ _  
_

_"What's that got to do with anything?" she snarks, but her heart isn't into it, so he doesn't say anything and waits out the silence._ _  
_

_"Listen... Mako, all the chiefs of police have been Beifongs, and I know that's on two, but I'm pretty sure the name comes with the title."_ _  
_

_Mako stares at her stupidly for a solid two minutes._ _  
_

_"Huh?" he asks eloquently. Lin rolls her eyes and wishes he would just understand, because she really doesn't like talking about this in obvious words, but if that's what it's going to take..._ _  
_

_"I want you to be a Beifong. I want you to be Police Chief Mako Beifong."_ _  
_

_This gets an even blanket stare, and Lin is regretting even bringing this up, but then,_ _  
_

_"You... want me to be a Beifong."_ _  
_

_It's not a question._ _  
_

_"You... want me to be a_ **_Beifong_ ** _?"_ _  
_

_This time it's an incredulous question._ _  
_

_"You want me to be a Beifong!"_ _  
_

_An excited exclamation, and Mako was jumping from his chair to barrel around the table to pick Lin up in a truly ridiculous hug, but she wouldn't deny later that she'd hugged the idiot boy back._ _  
_

_"Lin, I-" he began as he set her back down, and she tried not to look pleased. His grin is too big for his face and he sits on his knees in front of her. "Thank you. I - thanks, Lin."_ _  
_

_Lin huffs, grumbles,_ _  
_

_"You don't have to act so excited, it's just a name," but she knows it's more than that, and ruffles his mussed hair affectionately. Then she shoves his head. "Now go finish. You're not chief yet."_ _  
_

_Mako laughs, salutes, "_ aye, aye, chief _," and get back into his chair across from her. He doesn't get much more work done that night._  
  
  
vi.

The little girl doesn't leave his mind. There's been multitudes of street kids he's run into over the years, and most of then have gotten good help, what with Korra and Asami making an effort to improve orphanages across the city, and converting the huge Sato Estate into a place for street kids to crash, or eat, or stay, or-

They had done good, and it was rare days indeed when Mako went to visit his friends and didn't see a gaggle of children racing across the yard or lounging in one of the many sitting rooms. There were a couple regulars, who stayed there all the time, and were welcome, and there were regulars who came to sleep and disappeared in the morning, and -

Most of the time, Mako just felt really proud of the the Avatar and her wife.

Korra bursts into his office that evening in a whirlwind, and plunks herself down in the chair across his desk and grins.

"So, guess what?"

Mako groans.

"Please don't tell you've set -"

"Set you up with another date? Yes, yes I have."

"Fuck, Korra. I don't have time for a date that will probably end horribly."

Korra laughs, pokes him in the chest with a finger of air.

"That's precisely your problem. You're a workaholic. Come on, Mako, give him a chance, this one's a good guy, I've actually known him for a while. His name is Shang, and he worked with Iroh in the army, Asami and I had him over for dinner one time when he was in town and didn't have anyone to stay with."

"Yeah?" Mako asks tersely. "How do you even know he'd want to go on a date with me."

Korra stands up, perches herself on the edge of her desk, and knocks him in the head with her knuckles.

"Because he said you were a catch and couldn't understand how the fuck I broke up with him," she grins.

Mako groans, and pinches the bridge of his nose. Korra's levity drops in an instant and she frowns.

"Sorry, I didn't know it wasn't a good time."

Mako shakes his head.

"No, no, it's fine, I've just... there's a lot on my mind."

Korra sits back down in the chair and leans her elbows on his desk.

"Okay, well... what can I help with?"

"Get me some painkillers. I've had a headache all day."

Korra's mouth twists into a disappointed frown.

"You should have gone home an hour ago, Mako," she tells him as she grabs a small bottle from her bag and hands it too him. Mako pops two pills and leans his head on his hands. "Come on, what else is bothering you?"

He stays silent for a beat. Then,

"When we were trying to clean out a Badgermole warehouse, I ran into a little girl. She couldn't have been more than eight. Korra... she said her dad left her there, and that he would come back."

Tiredly, Mako meets her eyes, and he knows she understands him. She might not have grown up on the street - she might have had a good family - but she's been in Republic City long enough to know what happens.

"She ran away when backup arrived." He rubs his forehead again. "I just dunno why this one is different. I can't get it out of my head."

Korra reaches across and takes his hand.

"I hope you find her again. Tell me what she looks like and we can keep an eye out."

Mako smiles, tried, and describes the girl. He's never been so thankful to have a friend like Korra.

 

  
  
iii.  
_"...Now I'd like to introduce my successor as chief," Lin says to the mic, avoiding the vulture-ish gaze of the reporters. She meets Mako's eyes from across the platform, and a little half smile crosses her lips so quickly he's not so sure it was there in the first place._  
_This is it. Sure, Bolin and Korra and Asami knew his is going to be Chief, but they didn't know about Beifong._

 _He grins a little._ _  
_

_"Your next chief of police, Mako Beifong!"_ _  
_

_For a long second, there's silence and Mako walks up to Lin, and then there is aggressively supportive cheering and applause from Korra, Bolin, Asami. Then Opal, and Jinora and Kai, and Tenzin's whole family, and then the police force, and then the airbenders, and then -_  
_And then everyone else and the reporters are snapping so many pictures Mako is pretty sure he's going to go blind. He reaches to shake Lin's hand and then - and then of all things, Lin pulls him by the hand so she can hug him tightly and -_

 _Mako really doesn't want to start crying, but he tears up a little anyways, holds onto Lin, Mom, tightly, swipes his hand across his eyes as she releases him before anyone else can see but -_ _  
_

_Bolin's is crying, and has his arm around Opal, and Korra has a huge grin on her face as she picks Asami up in a hug._ _  
_

_That's our detective boy, he sees her mouth._ _  
_

_Funny, he thinks idly, as the reporters bombard him with questions which he ignores._ _  
_

_He and Bolin are both Beifongs now, one by marriage and one by adoption, to put it plainly. Mako isn't about to call Lin Mom to her face, and she's not about to call him son but..._ _  
_

_But it is close enough for him, and she is the closest thing he has to a mother, and he'll always love his birth mother and father, but Lin's been bumped up from boss, to aunt, to mom in the relationship department, and he won't have it any other way._ _  
_

_"Well, Chief Beifong," Lin says to him later, when his friends have all congregated in the bullpen for cake, with a proud smile on her face. "You're gonna keep me in the loop, you hear?"_ _  
_

_Mako grins, can't keep it off his face, and salutes._ _  
_

_"Aye, aye, Mom."_

 

  
  
vii.

A few months pass, and Mako doesn't see anything that points him to the little girl, but he doesn't stop looking. He doesn't know where to look, or what to ask around, and he has to assume she got picked back up by the Badgermoles, which at least she probably gets something to eat.

The Badgermoles escape him at every turn, too, which is increasingly frustrating, and makes him start to wonder if there's a regular mole inside the force. That thought makes him fuckshit angry, and he spends a good two hours after work in the gym.

For every tip off they get about a location, no matter how many stakeouts, or warrants he procures, the Badgermoles have cleared out everything, every time.

This time, whenever he gets a tip personally, he doesn't tell his force. Instead, he shows up at the Sato Estate, and ask the Avatar for help.

Korra opens the door with a toddler perched on her hip, Li Shan, her and Asami's fourth child. Satoru, four years old and sharp as a nail, attacks Mako's knees in a ferocious hug, and the oldest twin boys, Wan and Torak, are nowhere to be seen.

"Pick me up, Uncle Mako!" she yells, then shrieks with laughter as Mako swings her up onto his shoulders. Korra is laughing at her daughter when she steps back to let Mako in, and he leans to peck her on the cheek as he passes.

"How you doin,' Korra?" he asks, kissing Li Shan's fat little cheek too. The boy laughs and waves his hands at Mako, babbling about something as Korra leads Mako up the stairs to her office.

Mako puts Satoru down at the landing, and she takes off down the hallway, screeching for her Mommy, and Korra laughs and knocking the back of Mako's locked knee as she passes him, and he retaliates with foot disrupting her own feet.

It's something they've accidentally struck up, playfully, that reminds him of his brother, and thinks that Korra is his best friend, and probably the closest thing to a sister he's got. Which he finds amusing.

What passes as Korra's office is rectangular room, with wide windows on the far wall, one wall completely covered on bookshelves, the wall opposite that, covered in newspaper articles and children's drawings, and Nuctok posters, something that made Bolin swoon the first time he saw them pasted to the wall.

The Avatar sits down at her desk in her spinny chair, which makes Li Shan giggle, and she looks to Mako expectantly.

"So what's up, Mako?"

He sits down in a chair across from her, takes Li Shan when he reaches, then meet Korra's eyes.

"I'm here on police business. _Off the books_ police business."

Korra's interest is immediately piqued, and she leans forward, stepping her fingers.

"I'm worried that the Badgermoles have an actual mole in my force," he says, brushing his fingers over the baby's ticklish back. "No matter how quickly we respond to a tip, the gang is already cleared out. Listen, I've just gotten a tip, and I was wondering if you could help me out."

Korra grins, sharp.

"Like old times?" she suggests, and Mako grins back, equally as sharp.

"Like old times."

Korra darts out of the room to tell Asami she's going on a stake out, and returns with an okay, and an request to get more hogchicken eggs.

"It's too bad we couldn't get Asami and Bolin to come." Korra laughs. "We could take Naga."

She says that, but both of them know Naga is older, and has a whole litter of puppies herself, and Mako is pretty sure once they get older, Korra and Asami are going to release a flood of children and polar beardogs into Republic City, which can't possibly stand that much chaos.

Mako laughs, playing with a small flame in his hand for Li Shan's entertainment, so reaches with a glint in his amber colored eyes. He wonders... well, if any of their children are benders, he's sure it'll show up eventually.

"It is too bad, but Bolin is travelling with Opal, I think around Omashu, and somebody's gotta keep an eye on all the hooligans."

Korra socks him on the arm and frowns at him.

"My kids aren’t hooligans," she says, but she's fighting a smile when he shoves her back.

"No, no, I'm pretty sure they are."

Korra shoves him again towards the door and points at her son.

"You can give that ragamuffin to a hooligan running around out there, he'll be fine."

Mako rolls his eyes and snags the collar of the first kid within range, a slim girl with choppy black hair in a green tank top.

"Keep an eye on the kid, will you, Ji?" Korra asks as Mako hands over ths chubby baby. The girl smirks, props him on her hip, and takes off down the hallway.

"How does he survive?" Mako asks incredulously, and Korra laughs, thumping him in the back.

"He's my kid, what do you expect."

They head downtown in a nondescript Sato-mobile, and Korra is wearing a hat, even though she doesn't where the wolftails anymore. She's started wearing braids in her hair, just one or two that are probably Asami's fault. Still can't drive though, and Mako takes them through the streets with good time. He parks the car in an alley with a clear view of the Jyan's Dumplings. The name sounds vaguely familiar, but he has no idea what it would be.

"I got a tip from the fruit stand down the street," he says, putting the car in park, and stretching his arms. "The vendor said she's seen Badgermoles coming in and out at all hours. There's a good chance they're in there."

Korra stretches her arms and cracks her knuckles threateningly.

The traffic coming in and out of the restaurant is surprisingly busy, but not half an hour after he and Korra arrive, a handful identified Badgermoles entered the building.

"Let's go," Mako says, popping the door open the same time Korra does. It really does feel like old times when Korra kicks the doors open, fire blazing in her hands, mirroring the fire in his own hands.

"Republic City Police! This is a raid!"

"Please don't be alarmed," she calls to the surprising amount of customers. "If everything goes smoothly, you should be able to _oh fuck, Mako, we're fucked_ ," she hisses, dropping her reassuring words to knock Mako in the ribs to point to a couple in a corner booth.

And then he mirrors her sentiments exactly.

Sitting primly in the corner booth is Lin and Kya.

Without any preamble, Lin loudly declares,  
"The passageway's in the wine cellar and they also launder for the Creeping Crystals. Make your arrests, but don't make me stand up or my wife will be pissed off."

Kya stares apologetically at Mako.

"Mako, I swear, I'm so sorry."

He can't even speak. Yanking a hand through his hair, _honestly he doesn't know why he even styles it anymore, it never stays_ , he turns to Korra and motions to the door in the back.

"Keep an eye on 'em out here, I'll take the cellar."

Korra nods shortly, and he sees her wander over to Kya and Lin's table, and honestly, when he said Lin could be his consultant, he thought more like... going over reports with him not doing her own investigations.

Knocking some heads in the cellar should be fun.

He kicks the door open, shoots a blast of fire at the ceiling and catches the attention of seven-odd Badgermoles standing around a couple crates, one of which was cracked open to see the glowing green of creeping crystals.

"RCP. If you want to leave without any burns, I'd suggest putting your hands in the air."

He's knee deep in a scuffle with the three earthbenders when Korra bursts through the door and takes over taking out the earthbenders so Mako can knock some firebender heads. There's one waterbender who smashes some bottles for ammunition, and a nonbender who makes an attempt at chi-blocking, but Korra lets her eyes do the glowy-Avatar-state thing he knows is just a bluff, and it's enough to discourage the Badgermoles.

Korra ties up the thugs, and he calls in a police car, and a handful of officers to take them back to the station.

"Get these thugs outa here," Mako tells Saikhan and watches the seven Badgermoles and the cook - surprisingly, the waitress and waiter weren’t involved, and neither were any of the patrons - get hauled off with satisfaction. Then he sees Lin standing off to the side, her arm slung across Kya's shoulders.

He sighs, rubs his forehead. Squares his shoulders.

"Hey, Lin," he says, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Fancy seeing you here."

Lin rolls her eyes.

"Listen, Mako, there's absolutely no reason for you to be upset."

Mako groans.

"Lin, you're not the chief of police anymore, you're retired. I thought retirees were supposed to, I dunno..." he trails off awkwardly. "Well, I didn't think you were supposed to be involved with active investigations."

Lin scoffs.

"That who you thank someone for saving you a couple minutes worth of investigating?"

Withholding another groan, because at this point its pointless to argue, because Lin isn't going to back down -

"Just... next time tell me, please, so you don't surprise me."

Lin makes a noncommittal noise, and looks away.

"Anyways, I'm going to go search the cellar," Mako says, and leaves.

He almost isn't surprised when he sees the little girl peering into a crate of creeping crystals. Her back is to the door but she doesn't jump when be clears his throat. Her feet are bare.

"It's you," she says. Carefully, he descends the rest of the stairs, and crouches next to her. There's a creeping crystal on her fingers. "I like the crystals. They feel tingly." She wiggles her fingers and the crystal returns to a it's original shape. An earthbender then.

"Was your father one of the people taken?" he asks her quietly. She shakes her head. Then, "Can you tell me your name?"

She glances over at him, but her eyes land on his shoulder rather than his face.

"Irah," she mumbles. "Mama said I was named after the General."

Fuck. Another mixed kid. It's like the universe is throwing a kid almost completely like him right in his lap as - as... well fuck all if he knows. All he knows is the universe is throwing this kid at him.

Mako sits down on his ass, hard and thinks.

He doubts Irah would take kindly to being taken to an orphanage.

"Are you hungry?" he finds himself asking.

Irah looks at him warily.

"Yeah," she says after a moment.

"Do you like dumplings?"

She nods. Mako stands up.

"Wait here, I'll get you some."

He returns in a few minutes with a bowl full of dumplings, chopsticks, and a large glass of water. Irah stares at the food and drink in his hands, and after a moment's hesitation, digs into them with a vengeance. It kind of hurts his chest as he remembers all too well the all-consuming, gnawing hunger that ate at his stomach as a kid.

The lunch session is interrupted by a blast of fire almost singeing his head.

Mako rolls back, jumps to his feet, hands held protectively by his face as he faces the previously unnoticed Badgermole. He recalls now that the woman was a customer.  
Fire flickers between the cracks of her fingers and she sneers.

"You might be able to nab those idiots, but I'm not about to let you take the goods."

Mako's lip curls, and he shoots a lick of fire at her.

"Yeah, well, good luck with that."

The fight is fast-paced and brutal and blistering as they exchange blasts of fire. Mako flips table on its side, tugs Irah behind it and shoots three rapidfire blasts over his makeshift cover. Irah apparently decides she’s going to help and stomps her little feet and hurls a couple pieces of earth at the firebender.

The sheer quantity of curse words and the speed with which they fly through his head would normally shock him, but not more than the tiny earthbender’s fierce expression as she chucks rocks at the offending firebender.

The Badgermole’s lip curled and she flips horizontally down the stairs, kicking a blazing blast at Irah. Mako moves suddenly, bends his arms into a move he doesn’t remember learning, spins the fire around his body, and shoves it back at the firebender’s.  
She’s knocked backwards, slams her head on the doorframe, and is effectively knocked out. Korra bounds through the doorway half a second later, and Mako stands, brushing off his pants.

“Thanks for the backup,” he deadpans, and Korra gives him a look. Then she sees Irah standing behind him, her arms wrapped around herself as she sways side to side, and Korra’s expression softens. Slowly, she walks down the stairs and crouches.

“Hey,” she says softly, with a similarly soft smile, and waves. Irah clutches Mako’s pants, which makes him tense, and presses her face into the back of his thigh.

“Oh, shy are we?” Korra asks, but doesn’t press forward. “That’s okay. I’m Korra. I’m glad you’ve met Mako, he’s a good friend.” Then she stands up, tosses her hair over her shoulder, and surveys the basement with her hands propped on her hips. “Okay then, let’s clear this place out.”

After checking to make sure Irah wasn’t burned, which she isn’t, Mako helps direct and haul the crates, go through the documents, and clear at the stash of yuans hidden in the wall. A list of other locations is found among some of the papers as well as a telegram addressed to a man named Lao Che. _Interesting._

“I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to shut down the restaurant for the duration of this ongoing investigation,” Mako declares, as he shuts the cellar down and addresses the people still inside. “I’m going to have to ask you all to leave.” He pauses. “You don’t have to pay.”

As the people clear out, he figures Irah is slipping among them undetected to find her fuckshit father. The small hand slipping into his as he leans against his Sato-mobile makes him jump.

“What the-”

Irah peers up at him with her big green eyes and says,

“Thanks.”

“Uh, no problem. Helping people is my job.”

She doesn’t move. Her eyes move to his shoulder, then his badge pinned to his shirt that was previously covered by his coat. Then his scarf. Mako’s hand passes over the red fabric.

“Listen, you -”

Whatever he was about to say was cut off by a block of earth flying over his head and smashing into the wall.

“You think you can just bust a couple of our guys?” a burly earthbender yells, reading two more blocks of earth. Mako’s fists flame as he brings them up to his face.

“I just did! What are you gonna do about it?” he yells back, then glances at Irah. “Get out of here, it’s not safe!”

She hesitates for just a moment before darting around the corner. He barely has time to breathe a sigh of relief that she’s gone, before a chunk of earth makes him duck and slam his back against the soon-to-be-wrecked Sato-mobile, slinging a blast of fire back the way the earth had come. He pops up, slides over the hood of the car, kicks off some fire and runs after the retreating back of the Badgermole.

In theory, he knows he should call for backup, and that one singular solitary gang member running away was almost positively leading him into a trap, and yet -

Mako skids around a corner, and immediately drops into a roll, popping up and pressing his back against a dumpster. Just around his measly cover are five earthbenders, three firebenders, four waterbenders, and a man in a car.

And then, across the street, on the corner he just came from, is a small, dirty face that is becoming a familiar sight, and he wants to die. _Irah, what the actual fuck._ Her hands are clenched into fists, and her face is screwed up in determination as she meets his eyes from across the street. Mako is pretty sure his eyes can’t get any bigger.

Forgetting the Badgermoles, because at this point, the tiny civilian across the street is more important than catching the gang members, he darts out, somersaults, jumps up and sprints across to grab Irah up. He sets her down again a couple blocks away and tries not to blow up.

“Irah, what were you thinking? You can’t follow me like that, it’s too dangerous!”

Irah shifts back and forth on her feet. Mako sighs, and kneels on one knee to get on her level.

“Irah,” he says again, softly. “You can’t do that.”

Her eyes dart up to meet his, then back to her feet.

“I wanna help,” she says, a stubborn tone to her voice. That makes him frown.

“You don’t… you don’t wanna help the Badgermoles?”

She shakes her head.

“They’re -” and she says something he never thought to hear an eight-year-old say, and he cringes.

“Well… even if they are… isn’t your dad one of them?”

Irah lifts a shoulder in a shrug.

“I haven’t seen him in a while.”

Mako bites down on his cheek to stop from swearing.

“Come on, I’m gonna take you somewhere safe.”

 

He takes her to the Sato Estate, drops her off with Asami, and leaves with a wave, thoroughly exhausted and kind of frustrated he has to drive back to the apartment. Although…

The walk back to his apartment is barely noticed. He’s pretty sure he started dissociating not five yards out the door of Asami’s mansion. He fumbles for his keys. The jangling is almost too much all at once. He steps inside. Locks the door. Leaves the lights off. Rests his head against the door.

 _Fuck,_ he’s exhausted. Mako doesn’t want to open his eyes, but he has to be in early tomorrow to go over all the evidence he collected. He kicks off his shoes, drops his coat. Drags his feet over to the kitchen.

He needs a drink, he thinks, digging out a bottle of whiskey from the pantry and sets down a glass a little harder than he should. Sits down hard in a kitchen chair.

 

Mako jerks awake suddenly, at a small noise in the living room, and he bangs his shin as he scoots the chair back. He lights up his fist, still disorientated, and stumbles over to find -

Irah, shuffling some pillows around on the couch. Her head jerks up when he walks in, and her mouth drops open.

“What…” he can’t even finish his sentence. Mako sits down on the other end of the couch.

“It’s loud over there,” Irah mumbles. Well… okay, that’s understandable. “Can I stay here? I don’t wanna go to - I don’t wanna go.”

Well, shit. How could he say no to those sad little green eyes.

“You can stay the night,” he tells her, and drapes a blanket over her.

 

 

ix.

The door bangs open, and Lin doesn’t even flinch. None of the kids ever make a habit of knocking, except Asami, but she doesn’t usually mind.

“Your kid’s here,” Kya says across the room with a smug look, and Lin shoots a glare at her, even as Mako blows into the kitchen, effectively disrupting her breakfast and morning newspaper.

“Lin, there’s a, uh… situation,” he says, pulling out a chair and sitting down across from her.

She rolls her eyes.

“What is it now?”

“I, uh, seem to have acquired a kid.”

Well then. She wasn’t expecting that.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> skfjjsd this might be one of the like... two? multi chap fics im actually finishing. lets just hope it holds

viii.

Mako wakes up sprawled out on the end of his couch. He shakes his head, groaning as he stretches, and then he sees Irah. Still curled up at the other end, sleeping soundly.

Oh, right. _Fuck._ She doesn't like it at Korra and Asami's. He can't take her to a home, he just can't, for whatever reason.

The phone is ringing.

Mako hauls himself to his feet, shuffles over to the table in the kitchen where the telephone sat and picked it up.

“Hello?”

“Chief? It's Saikhan. You were supposed to be in an hour ago.”

This time, his fuck is outloud.

“I'll be there in twenty, make sure everything is ready, I don't want to see anyone slacking off just because I'm not there.”

“Sir,” Saikhan says in acknowledgment and hangs up.

When Mako turns around, Irah is sitting up, watching him carefully.

“You have to go to work?” she asks quietly, almost carefully, and Mako hesitates before answering.

“I have to go headquarters. You can come with me if you want, but you have to stay out of trouble if you do,” he offers. Irah perks up immediately and nods eagerly.

“Yeah! I'll be still and quiet,” she promises. “That's what my daddy told me to do when people are around.”

Mako frowns as he gets some leftover plain noodles and a couple peaches out of the icebox. _Still and quiet_ didn't sound right - he didn't like that. They'd told Bolin that before, when they were little and with the Triads.

“You don't have to be still or quiet. Just out of trouble,” he tells her as he hands her a bowl of heated noodles and peach slices.

Irah doesn't look like she quite knows what to do with this information, so she takes the bowl and chopsticks silently, and stares at them as she eats.

Mako doesn't eat anything himself - washes sleep-crust off his face, and changes clothes - and by the time he's back out, Irah has set her empty bowl in the sink and is waiting by the doorway, shifting back and forth on her feet.

“Ready?” he asks, and she doesn't say anything as he walks up to the door, only slips her hand in his, and waits expectantly. “Okay… let's go, the precinct is only a few blocks away.” And he tells her about the new building, and about the old building and how he misses it, because he isn't sure what else to tell her, and talking about things he knows about is easier.

He walks into the building without flinching or deviating from his usual stoic glare, even when Irah pulls on his hand and loudly whispers questions. If an officer stares  too openly, all he has to do is channel his inner Lin-glare, and their eyes jump down to their desk.

He makes it to his office without incident.

Saikhan is waiting.

“There you are, Chief.” He is holding a stack of files. “I was able to get the files of all the people we brought in, thought you might want to look over them, oh, and Amaruq has the reports on the Li Yan homicide ready when you are.”

Then he notices Irah.

“Oh,” he says. “Hey.”

Irah tucks herself behind Mako again, and he grimaces.

“Her dad was running with the Badgermoles,” Mako says by way of explanation. “He, uh… left. Her, I mean. She's with me until -”

Saikhan cuts him off gently.

“You don't gotta explain yourself to me, Chief,” he says, and Mako very nearly melts with gratitude. “I'll remind all the nosy bastards out there of that, too.”

“What am I gonna do with you when you retire, eh, Saikan?” Mako calls as he leaves.

“I think you'll manage,” he replies with a grin, and Mako feels a weight off his chest.

“Okay, Irah. I've got a lot of work to do, but you can, uh…”

He looks around his office. There's not much to do.

“Do you like to read?” he asks as Irah climbs into one of the three extra chairs in the office. She looks at him strangely.

“I don't really know how.”

“Oh.” _Right_ , obviously, when were street kids given an education. He hadn't learned until he was fourteen. “Uh.”

He is beginning to think he hasn't thought this through.

Mako sits down at the desk, and quickly dials up Asami.

She answers quickly enough, and immediately starts talking.

“Mako, I'm so sorry, I had no idea Irah wasn't here until early this morning, and I couldn't call you, because Li was being fussy, and I-”

“Asami, it's okay,” Mako interrupts whenever she stops to take a breath. “She followed me home, I've got her here at the station.”

There is a beat of silence, and then Asami starts talking again, but much less apologetic, and more berating.

“You took a little girl with you _to the station?_ ” she demands, and he can hear her frown through the line. He rubs the back of his neck, glances over to Irah, rocking side to side and fiddling with the hem of her shirt. _Shit,_ he should have gotten her some new clothes.

“Uh, yeah? Listen, she didn't like it at your place, said it was too loud, which I understand. She, uh… I think she attached to me, or something? Do kids do that?”

He hears Asami laugh over the phone.

“Yes, Mako, kids do that. You were probably one of the first people to actually treat her right.”

“Well… anyway, I didn't really think this through, and I dunno what to give her to… to occupy her while she's her.”

It's quiet on the line, and Mako hears Asami talking softly on the other end, probably to one of her kids, and then she's back on the phone.

“I'll be over in ten.”

And that was that.

 

Precisely twelve and a half minutes later - traffic must have been bad - Asami appears in his office, a baby on her hip, and the ten-year-old twins trailing behind her.

“I hope you don't mind I brought the boys,” she says with a charming smile, and Mako glares, Wan and Torak chattering loudly to each other.

“Why.”

Asami laughs and sets her bag down on top of his desk.

“I know it's been a rough few days, and you could use some company that's _not_ work related.”

Mako tosses his pen down, leans back in his chair, runs his forehead.

All in all, he doesn't usually mind when his rambunctious quasi-nephews hang put the precinct. They're popular and friendly and being the sons of two of the most famous people in Republic City didn't help either.

Torak is a budding waterbender, loud, active, but extremely loyal and quick to defend. If he ever wanted to become a cop - and he often mentioned how cool it is - Mako thinks he would be great.

Wan is an airbender, talented, loves to spend time Jinora and Kai when they were in town, a lot quieter than his twin, thoughtful, but just as mischievous as Torak when he wants to be.

Mako glances over to where Irah was still seated, still rocking, but a little quicker, a little smile on her face as Wan did airbending tricks with pieces of paper, and then Torak pulled out a wrinkled comic book stuffed in his knapsack, and leaned next to her to start reading his favorite parts as Irah stares at the pictures with wide eyes.

Maybe the twins hanging around wouldn't be so bad after all.

“Fine,” Mako says, and Asami smiles like she discovered the origin of the universe.

“I knew you'd come around. Well, I've got some things do do, but I'll be back around lunch time. They've got snacks in their bags -”

“They know where the break room is, Asami,” Mako says with a grin. “They'll be fine.”

Irah is happily occupied with Wan and Torak for the morning, and the boys show her all the best hiding places in the precinct, and the break room with the stack of donut boxes, and considering the fact that the three of them controlled three of the elements, he sent them out back around eleven under the supervision of a police officer on probation, Itsuki. They came into his office an hour later, grinning and grimy, and demanding food.

Asami finds Mako and the three kids seated on the floor of his office sharing takeout from the restaurant a block away.

For the rest of the day, Irah colors and draws, sprawled on the floor, as Mako does _so much_ paperwork, and the letters start swimming in front of his eyes around four.

Probably good time for a break. He tells Irah he's going to take a break, and knows that she won't get far if she leaves, because she is quite literally in the middle of the one of the safest buildings in the city.

There's a cluster of young, fresh-out-the-academy officers circled around the watercooler gossiping about something - you wouldn't expect police officers to be some of the biggest gossips, but it livens up slow days, and he'd be lying if he said he hadn't done it - and then he knows what they're talking about because a hush falls in the room as he enters. They just stare as he heats some water for spirits-awful coffee that is only drunk for the sheer caffeine content, and shuffles through the cabinets while he waits. He has half a chocolate donut in his mouth when he realizes the rookies are still staring and he turns slowly. Mako stares them down for a moment, slowly morphing his expression into a scowl.

“Don't you have somewhere to be?”

They scatter like mouse-gazelles immediately, and Mako allows himself a satisfied smirk as he pours his coffee and walks back to his office.

Irah is explaining a drawing to Saikhan when he opens the door. There are new papers on his desk. Saikhan must have brought them in. Police Chief-ing is a lot more paperwork than most would be lead to believe.

 

Mako gets lost in his work. He knows Nukilik came in to drop off some forensic reports from the break-in on fifth and main. Ling dropped off a cartoon of noodles and hogchicken meat, but he doesn't touch it, too busy.

He hears the majority of the Force check out, and the second shift officers come in.

It doesn't register how late it is until Saikhan clears his throat suddenly.

Mako looks up at him, rubbing at his bleary eyes.

“Yeah? What's up?”

“I'm heading home.” Then, “You should, too,” he says in That Tone, and Mako follows the line of Saikhan's finger to a chair in the corner.

Irah is curled up, leaning her head against the wall, asleep, his coat draped over her like a blanket.

_Shit._

He'd completely forgotten about her and that makes him feel guilty as hell.

“Shit. What time is it?”

“Almost eleven-thirty.”

Mako groans, runs his eyes.

“Right,” he says, standing up. “Thanks.”

“No problem, Chief,” Saikhan says as he finally quits loitering in the doorway and leaves.

Carefully, grateful for all the nieces and nephews he has that has given him the practice of picking up sleeping children, he lifts her up, shifting until her head is on his shoulder. Irah mumbles something unintelligible and one of her hands grips his shirt collar. She feels too light. She shouldn't feel this light, and a sudden surge of protectiveness washes over him,  and he holds her tightly as he realizes he doesn't want to give her up.

Irah reminds him too much of himself, of Bolin when they were children. He can't just give up on her now.

 _Shit,_ he thinks, and then, _shit shit shit._

  


x.  
  
“You've acquired a _what?_ ” Lin asks incredulously, and Kya starts snorting laughter the room over.

“A _kid,_ Mom,” he says again, looking a little wild, and neither of then realize he calls her that until later. “She's -”

But Kya is laughing hard and _loud_ , and then there is a thump like she fell on the floor. A glance into the room sees the waterbender sprawled on the floor with tears in her eyes, laughing so hard it's silent, and it seems like she can't breathe.

“ _Kya,_ ” Lin says, exasperated as she and Mako both turn a similarly unimpressed look on her.

“Is your wife okay?” he asks, a little unsure, because it sounds like she isn't breathing.

“What wife,” Lin deadpans, and shuts the door. “You were saying?”

“I have acquired a kid.”

“I heard that part. I hope you didn't leave it alone at your apartment.”

“‘Course not. I set her down over here,” and shows Lin the little girl leaning against the wall under the coat hooks. She is asleep, her mouth hanging open slightly, wearing ratty clothes.

Mako and Lin both stand over her, arms crossed, heads tilted to the right.

“What am I supposed to do?” Mako asks in a hushed tone, gesturing at the girl.

Lin makes a noise in her throat.

“What're you coming to _me_ for?”

Mako glances at her, his lips twisted into a half-scowl.

" _Lin._ ”

She rolls her eyes.

“The least you could do is get her new clothes. Spirits know what could be in those rags. And give her a bath, she smells.”

Mako can't help the glare that comes out.

“Yeah, well, she barely knows me. I'm not about to make her take a bath, okay. Even if she does smell. She was outside today with the twins.”

That makes Lin straighten and she faces Mako.

“Why didn't you take her to Korra and Asami?”

Mako spreads his hands as he says,

“I did, but she snuck out and followed me home.”

“Let me guess. You're not taking her to a children's home because you're attached to her now.”

He scrubs the back of his neck, glances away.

“Yeah.”

“You're a bleeding heart, Mako.”

He makes an offended noise at that.

“Hey! That's Bolin!”

“I think it's genetic,” Lin says over her shoulder as she walks away.

Mako makes a face at her back, then turns back to the sleeping Irah, and props his hands on his hips.

 _Fuck._ Lin is right.

 

He stays the night at Lin and Kya's like he does sometimes, sleeps on the floor, and lets Irah curl up on the couch. He's taking the next day off - though the one day he's off duty will probably be the one day something big goes down - paperwork be fucked.

Mako stumbles into the kitchen the next morning and into his chair, accepts the steaming cup of coffee gratefully when Lin pushes it across the table to him.

There's a long few minutes of nothing but the sound slurping coffee before Mako suddenly shoots to his feet knocking his chair over.

“ _Where's Irah!_ ” he yells. She wasn't one the couch when he woke up, and as it usually takes several moments for his brain to load it should be expected that he didn't realize until now, but that can't and won't stop him from feeling bad about it.

A surprisingly short investigation leads him to the bathroom off the hallway. The door is open a sliver, and he can see the back of Kya's head, and hear the soft of water being splashed around, and he breathes an audible sigh of relief and drops his forehead against the wall.

“That was short lived,” Lin comments. Mako lifts his head with a weak attempt at a smile on his face. She's holding two cups of coffee, and holds his out.

“Kya seems to have the bath part taken care of.”

“You can't return the kid now, Kya's bonded.”

Mako laughs.

“I couldn't if I wanted to. I lost to receipt.”

Lin snorts, before snagging his elbow.

"Now that you've found the kid, get your firebending ass back into the kitchen so you can heat some things for me,” she tells him, pulling him with her. Mako mock-scowls at her.

“I'm not your human reheater,” he argues, and Lin simply gives him a look.

“I wouldn't bet any money on that.”

“Hey!”

  


xi.

Irah kicks her feet, perched on the edge of the chair, eating rice as Mako fixes her hair, twisting it into two small buns under her ears. He remembers one of Korra and Asami's girls wearing her hair like that. He hopes Irah likes it. It has been almost two weeks since they stayed at Lin and Kya's and Irah had steadily become more comfortable around him. He's glad. He's become more comfortable around her, too. They'd begun to form routines and Mako fixing her hair while she ate breakfast was one of them.

“Hey, Irah?” he asks, tying off the first bun, trying to make some stray hairs tuck in. She tips her head back to look at him upside down, giggling. “How old are you?”

A hand gentle on the back of her head, he pushes her head back facing straight ahead, to finish doing her hair. She chews on her bite of rice. Shrugs a shoulder. Makes a noise of _I don't know._

“Eight? Nine?"

She hums as she thinks.

“I think I'm nine. But I dunno for sure.”

“Hmm. Listen, we need to take you to a doctor soon, okay? You need to be healthy.”

Irah screws her face up, setting down her bowl as Mako finishes her hair.

“Never been. Chao said it's yucky.”

“Who’s Chao?” Mako asks curiously, getting his own breakfast as Irah pulls a colorful children's magazine to look at. They'd gone shopping with Lin and Kya and gotten her new clothes, but also some things to entertain her.

She shrugs at his question.

“Just another kid. He was bigger than me.”

“He hung around your father?”

She makes a noise in her throat and keeps looking at the colorful pictures. Conversation over, then. Fair. He has to get to work soon, anyway.

“We need to head over to Lin and Kya's soon, okay, Irah?”

“I don't wanna today.”

Her argument takes him by surprise, as does the way she sets down the magazine to look at him.

“Really? I thought you liked them.”

“I do. But I wanna be around _you._ ”

 _Oh._ Well, when she put it like _that._

“Tell you what, I spend half the day with you, and then you go spend the night with Lin. That way we can hang out and I can still get work done.”

She leans her chin on her arms, thinking. Then she says,

“I wanna see the badgermoles at the zoo. Lin called me that one day, I wanna know what they are like!”

Mako grins at her.

“I think I can manage that.”

He takes her to the zoo and gets her a bright red balloon and lets her sit on his shoulder so she can see and drips vanilla ice cream into his hair. She loves the badgermoles and reaches into the pit to let it snuffle at her hand and she makes friends with the tigerbear cubs and plays peekaboo with the wolfbats. Irah yanks on his hand when she catches sight of the waterfall where the flying fish lives and darts off before he can stop her.

“Your daughter must be a handful,” a woman next to him laughs, shifting a baby on her hip and stopping a little boy from running away. Mako's mind stutters to a stop.

“Oh,” he says. “I - she's-”

“She's a very lucky girl to have such a great father,” the woman says with a friendly smile, before walking away to the next exhibit.

_A great… father? But he's not - and she's just -_

He doesn't know where he's trying to go with his thoughts and it's probably a good thing Irah calls his name as she stands on the railing stretching to catch the spray on her fingers, because he rushes over to make sure she doesn't fall instead of completing his train of thought.

After the zoo, they sit on a park bench in Avatar Korra Park and eat hotdogs and he pretends not to see when she tosses pieces of her bun on the ground for the pigeoncats.

Both of them are pretty peopled out, ready for a break, and Irah is napping against his arm before he knows it. Mako knows they should head over to Kya and Lin's soon, but for now he'd rather sit in the sun with Irah napping on his arm.

 

It's nearing three o'clock if his calculations by the sun are correct, and he reckons it's time to head in. Irah is still sleeping as he picks her up and catches a cab to Lin's.

Mako deposits her in the guest bedroom and Lin is waiting for him in the kitchen, looking at him expectantly.

He waits for her to start talking, if she's going to.

“What are you doing, Mako?” she asks, crossing her arms over her chest. She's wearing a soft looking green shirt and a gray sweater but somehow still manages to look intimidating even when she should look like a sweet old lady. Don't let her know he thinks that, though.

“What do you mean?”

She levels a look at him that means _quit fucking around, you know what I mean._ He sighs.

“Do you want me to dump her? She's finally settling.”

“I didn't say that. But I want you to know just what you are doing. Have you told Bolin?”

“No. He's been out of town, you know. I didn't want to tell him yet because…” he trails off. He doesn't know why, or maybe he doesn't want to say it outloud. Lin makes that decision for him.

“You haven't told him because you don't want him to get attached when you don't even know if you're keeping her,” she says bluntly, moving closer. She puts a hand on his arm. “Mako…”

“I just… I don't know what to do, Mom,” he says a little helplessly. “I don't want to give her up, but I don't know how I am supposed to take care of her and be chief. I can't give up on her.”

A moment passes as neither of them say anything. Then,

“Well,” Lin says softly, squeezing his shoulder. “If you want her to stay, you'll figure something out. I know it.” She glances away, a little sheepish as she takes her hand off him. “Besides, I don't really mind her staying here if you need it.”

  


xii.

Irah stays.

Mako takes her to the doctor. She is nine and underweight and needs shots, which makes her cry a little, but mostly she sticks her chin in the air and Does Not Watch the needle and only cries after the nurse leaves and the only people in the room are herself and Mako. She gets a yellow smiley face sucker and a sticker with a badgermole on it and holds Mako's hand and skips down the street when the walk to the restaurant where Mako's little brother is going to meet them.

Mako's little brother is tall and big but he has a big friendly smile on his face and he squats down to wave at her and Irah is pretty sure she likes him very much.

“I'm Bolin,” he says and he can't say anything else because a fire ferret pops out of his shirt collar and sniffs at her. It tickles and makes her burst out in surprised laughter.

She shares her lunch with Pabu the fire ferret and laughs at his tricks and listens very intently when Bolin tells the story how Mako's arm got red and scarred and why there is a spirit portal in Republic City.

Afterwards they go play in the park and Bolin gives her a piggyback ride and he helps her do some earthbending forms as Mako sits in the shade with Pabu.

“When you get older,” Bolin says when they take a break, “you should see if you can metal bend, or maybe lavabend. But it's okay if you can't do either, because earthbending is just as special as anything else.”

“I like bending! It's fun!” Irah exclaims as she stomps a bare foot and does a twirly maneuver that sends a plume of dust into the air.

 

She spends more time with Korra and Asami, and with Wan and Torak, and it's almost alarming that the three of them get along like a house on fire. Mako enrolls her in the same school as the twins and for all the things he and Irah do together in the city, there is a surprising - suspicious - lack of comment on it from the media. He's not about to take it for granted, though, and enjoys the unexpected peace.

Irah spends the day at school and then the afternoon at Lin and Kya's, or Korra and Asami's, or on some days, Bolin and Opal's, and then Mako picks her up and they grab supper, and he helps her with her homework, and they do it all over again the next day. He takes more days off, tries to line up with her days off, or takes her out of school so they can spend the day together. She gains weight and grows taller, though she is still small, and she practices her earthbending with Lin and Bolin. Badgermoles are quickly becoming a favorite on Most Talked About list, and she rattles off facts about them on the walk home.

Irah learns to do cartwheels and somersaults and Mako teaches her self-defense and then she is ten and begs him to take her to see _The Boy in the Iceberg: A Tragic Retelling of the Avatar's Return_ with Lin when the Royal Dragon Dance theater troupe was in town - apparently, it's a tradition. She makes him mark her height on the doorway between the kitchen and the living room, and he humors her when she stands on her tiptoes and says,

“Mako, I've grown again! Measure me again!”

She wears her hair in two buns behind her ears and in the bag of hand-me-downs, there is a blue jean jacket covered in patches on the back that she takes to wearing. Mako has no idea who's it was, but it makes her happy and he's not going to stop her. She puts it on and the sleeves cover her hands and she hops around the kitchen tile floor every morning as he makes breakfast and spells out badgermole and then her name and then jumps to a stop in front of him, grinning, and says,

“That's me!”  


xiii.

“Mako? I can't figure out number four,” Irah says, frowning, pushing her math worksheet across the table to wear Mako sat, working on case. The East Side Badgermoles had been a pain in the Force's collective ass, but mostly Mako's. On most nights, Irah does her homework and Mako works on his cases and they help each other out, and sometimes when they are at Lin's or she is at their's, she helps Irah and Mako sometimes.

“Lemme take a look,” Mako says, setting down his paper and rubbing forehead as he reaches for the sheet. It's a long division problem, something he's never been very good at because he has only ever been good at addition and subtraction and he learned multiplication and division later in life that most kids, but he figures between the two of them they can work it out.

“Okay,” he says, pulling her chair around next to him. Irah may be eleven now, but she's still small and light.

They are probably half way through the problem when there is a knock at the door.

“It's almost nine,” Irah points out when he stands up. “That's late.”

“Yeah,” Mako says over his shoulder to her as he goes to answer the door. “I don't know who or why someone would be here either.”

Waiting outside in the hallway is a haggard looking mailman with a beaten envelope in his hand. He hands it to Mako and turns around and walks away without saying a word.

Mako shuffles back inside, flipping the envelope over to read its address as Irah calls,

“Who was it?”

“Mail,” he says, reaching the kitchen and offering the envelope. “It's for you.”

Irah takes the envelope curiously, tearing it open and pulling out a piece of paper. She reads it quietly as Mako sits back down and tries to go back to his work, but he can't focus. He doesn't know why but he has a weird feeling. It's not a good feeling.

All at once, Irah bursts out of her chair, grinning like mad, and starts pacing the short length of the kitchen, bouncing in every step. Mako gives up all pretense of work as soon as her extra hand starts going, and then _both_ hands are flapping so hard he thinks she's about to fly away.

“Mako, my dad wants me to come live with him!” she exclaims, bouncing back over to the table and slamming down the paper. “‘M gonna go get my stuff!”

She turns to take off and it is a testament to who stunned Mako is, being he doesn't stop her. He watches her run into her room, and then picks up the paper.

 

_Dear Irah,_

_I miss you, baby girl. I haven't seen you in so long, but now you can be with me again! It must be awful living with that police chief. He doesn't let you have much fun, does he? But that's okay, because you don't have to live with him anymore, and you and me are gonna have lots of fun we didn't get to have before._

_Come to our place, I'll be waiting._

_Can't wait to see you again, baby girl,_

_Your Dad_

 

Mako can't really breathe.

“Irah,” he calls, standing up and walking to her room, leaning on the doorway, watching as she throws her stuff onto her twin bed beside her backpack.

“Yeah?”

“Are you sure you want to go?”

Irah pauses and turns to look at him, frowning.

“Why wouldn't I?”

“‘Cos it's just, he left you, remember?” Mako asks carefully. He doesn't want to make her upset, but he knows her father isn't much of a good person.

“Yeah,” she says, like she doesn't understand why he's asking. “Now he wants me to come back home.”

Mako feels like all the air has been knocked out of him.

“You don't - you don't think this is home?”

No?” she says, like it was obvious.

“Irah,” Mako says, trying not to let the desperation bleed through, and not even certain why he feels desperate. “You can't go. If he wanted you, why did he wait so long?”

She's getting mad. He knows it in the set of her mouth, in the tilt of her chin, and the way one hand is propped on her hip.

“‘Cos he couldn't,” she says, and shoves her stuffed badgermole into her bag, and puts the straps through her arms. “I gotta go, Mako.”

There's nothing he can do to make her stop, and he knows this, but some reason, he keeps arguing.

“Irah, I'm just trying to keep you _safe!_ ” he says, taking a step closer and reaching for her shoulders, but she knocks his hands away and shouts,

“You don't have to, it's not your job! You're not my _dad_ , Mako!”

He's definitely just been shot. It hurts right in his chest, where he thinks his heart must be.

She storms past him and he hears the door open and slam shut, and he can't _breathe_ , she just ran away from him. Irah didn't like it here? She didn't like him? Was she only staying until her father called for her? Apparently.

Mako hears the door open again. He sees Lin's feet standing in front of him, and then she kneels and puts a hand on his shoulder. He doesn't remember sliding to the floor. There are tears in his eyes that make her face blurry.

“Irah came to say goodbye,” she says, searching his face for something. He doesn't know what.

“She didn't even want me. I thought she did, Lin.”

“I know, Mako,” she says, pulling him into a hug. “I know.”

 

 

xiv.

Irah watches her feet as she walks down the sidewalk, stepping over the cracks in the concrete so she doesn't notice the man until she bumps right into him. He steadies her quickly with his hands on her shoulders and she catches a glimpse of amber eyes before he immediately walks away. The streetlamps are flickering and all she can see is the man's back in a trench coat and a fedora pulled low on his head. 

She sticks her chilly hands into her coat pockets and jumps when she feels a piece of paper in her right pocket. There's an address on the paper, a phone number beneath it and under that, a note. 

 _Just in case_.

Irah folds it in half and sticks it back in her pocket. Just in case.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mwuahAHAHAHAHAHA 
> 
> sorrynotsorry anyways next chapter, final chapter, it all ends then, tune in next time!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> three was supposed to be the last chapter but i understand paolini's problem aldjsnsn
> 
> Enjoy

xv.

  
Irah clutches the worn scrap of paper in one hand tightly and with the other, holds onto her knapsack strap, slung over one shoulder, fingers twitching. She reads the address again, makes sure this is the right place, before gathering her courage and forging ahead. The apartment building isn't anything fancy, and she knows that several other police officers live here. She wonders if her scrap of paper is still accurate. She hopes it is.

Irah climbs up three flights of stairs and comes to a stop in front of door 42. It takes her several seconds before she actually knocks and then instantly regrets it. Maybe the occupants weren't home, maybe they didn't hear. She turns quickly, to run back down the stairs and try again tomorrow, maybe wait at the precinct. She doesn't even know if she's welcome anymore.

She's just made up her mind to do exactly that when the door opens and Irah is face to face with Prince General Iroh of the Fire Nation.

 _What_.

And his hair is messed up and his shirt isn't on straight and she probably is in the exact wrong place and she has never felt more red.

“Sorry,” she stutters, backpedaling, tugging at her overgrown bangs. “I'll… go.”

“Irah?” a voice calls, and Mako is peering around the bulk that is the still surprised General Iroh.

She freezes in her tracks. Of course, it occurs to her now that she should have used her seismic sense. Mako says something to Iroh, and he disappears from the doorway and then it is just Mako and Irah.

“I… didn't know if you would be here,” Irah begins as Mako says,

“I didn't expect you.”

They both trail off awkwardly for a moment and then Mako speaks.

“Will you come in?” he asks carefully, stepping aside. “I'm glad you're here. I've been worried about you.”

 _Oh_ , Irah thinks, yanking at her bangs again as she shuffles forward.

“Um,” she starts, continuing when Mako gives her a prompting look. “I… I didn't know if you would want me here.”

“Of course I would!” He sounds surprised she would say that, which confuses her. Isn't she the one who ran off, slamming the door behind her, to go back to her birth father, when he is the one who has been more of a dad to her than Shen ever was? “I'm glad you came but… why are you here?”

Mako doesn't look angry, only curious, and it almost, somehow makes her feel worse.

“I…” she doesn't know how she is supposed to say this. There's multiple reasons she's back and there are multiple things she wants - needs to say. Maybe... She peels back her sleeve to show the mottled bruises on her upper arm, one bruise above her elbow in the shape of a hand. “My father…” she says, wavering, not meeting his eyes.

Mako goes sudden still and drawn up tight as he realizes her meaning.

“Why don't you put your bag down?” he says. His voice is tight and careful, but his hands are shaking as he rests one hand on her opposite shoulder. “You can sit down, if you want.” He gestures to the couch which had a few blankets slung across it, clearly been used.

The sight of the familiar, well-worn couch nearly makes her sag with exhaustion, and she doesn't hesitate to step out of her shoes and drop her bag on the floor before shuffling over to crawl face down onto the couch. Oh, sweet relief. She can actually sleep here.

She is sleeping soundly, flung across the couch, when Mako returns with a glass of water and some antiseptic wipes. He sets the water down on the table in front of the couch and lays a blanket of her carefully.

Then he sags against the chair and puts his head in his hands.

“Mako?”

Iroh's hand is firm and warm between his shoulder blades and his voice is soft and warm.

“I can't believe she's here,” Mako says, voice muffled by his hands. “All this time… and because her dad is even more a piece of shit that I thought.”

It has been a little over a year since Irah left. Mako had moved soon after to a new apartment in a building a few blocks from the precinct and started seeing Iroh again when he was in town. Firelord Izumi is getting old, though, and her mother's death a few years ago was hard on her, and Lord Zuko’s health has been declining and Iroh’s sister preparing to become Firelord. Iroh's been preparing to become stationed in the Fire Nation to support his sister while she gets settled, and he expects to be there for a few years. Sure, it means Mako won't see as much of him anymore, but neither of them are going to get in the way of their duty. It's one reason why they get along so well together.

“She came back, though. Isn't that good?”

Mako takes a stilted breath and sits back, face hands free.

“I guess. I'm glad she's back, but… oh, fuck it, I dunno.”

“Well then, it's a good thing you can talk to her in the morning,” Iroh points out, settling next to Mako, because he obviously wasn't going to let Irah out of his sight, and wraps an arm around his shoulders. “So… who was she named after, me or Granddad's Uncle?”

Mako laughs.

 

When Irah wakes up, the sun is warm on her back and she sighs happily, still sleepy. She smells coffee and tea and hogchicken eggs and hears hippocow sausage sizzling and her stomach grumbles loudly. She wonders the last time she ate so well - she can remember her last supper with Mako before she ran away.

Irah kicks the blanket off her legs and rolls over. She sits up, rubbing her eyes, before  shuffling into the kitchen. Mako and Iroh are moving around each other easily and she wonders what other things Mako has learned to do easily without her.

“Morning,” she croaks. “My throat is dry.”

Wordlessly, Mako passes her a glass of water and she gulps it down.

“I made breakfast,” Mako says, by way of good morning, and hands her a plate. Iroh drains the last of his tea and pushes off from where he leans on the counter.

“I have things to do today, so I gotta head out,” he says, kissing Mako's cheek and waving to Irah as he tosses on his coat and leaves.

Mako picks at his food as Irah shovels hers down, and then Mako serves her a second helping that she picks at.

“I'm sorry!” Irah blurts suddenly, plates rattling as she slams her palms down on the table. She can't take the awkward silence anymore. “I'm sorry I left you, I'm sorry for what I said, I never meant - I never meant to hurt you and I know I did, and you were just trying to protect me because my father never had and I just -”

The chairs scrape suddenly as Mako surges forward to wrap her up in a hug.

Irah digs her fingers into his back and shoulders and is bewildered.

“How can you just… forgive me?” she asks, voice wet.

“Irah, I was never angry,” he says thickly.

When he pulls away, Mako's face is drawn tight.

“Where are you hurt?” he asks next, carefully.

“Uh,” she begins, flicking her overgrown bangs out of her eyes. There's a long scab curling around the bone of her left eye socket. “Mostly my arm. This time, anyway.”

“This time? Has he done it before?”

Irah shifts side to side uncomfortably.

“Only a few times. Then I ran away.”

Mako doesn't say anything as he wipes down the crusty scab first, carefully holding her head still with one hand, but there is not much he can do about a bruise.

“Does it hurt much?”

“Not anymore.” Irah shrugs a shoulder. “I barely noticed it anyway,” she says, picking at a scab on her thumb. Carefully, Mako takes her hand and wipes it down without asking.

“There. Anything else that needs to be fixed?”

Irah is quiet for a moment, thinking, and then points to himself.

“Your hand needs to be fixed.”

Shit. He'd forgotten about how raw the back of his hand was. Tell you what, an earthbender chucking a piece of concrete at you is a good way to get all kinds of scrapes.

“It's fine. I've already taken care of it.”

“No, you haven't,” she argues, scooching forward to catch his scarred hand in hers so she can look at it. “I know how to wrap it.”

She isn't going to give this up.

“Fine,” he says, but she is already reaching for gauze. He lets her work quietly before speaking again. “Do… do you want to see Kya and Lin?”

Perking up immediately, Irah ties off his new bandage and sits up eagerly.

“Can we?”

“Yeah! We can go now, if you want.”

 

Irah practically vibrates from excitement as they walk to Lin and Kya's house. She doesn't hold his hand like she used to, but her arm keeps brushing against his hand, and he thinks she might want to. They are a few steps down the sidewalk from their house when she stops. Mako takes a few more steps forward before he realizes she isn't with him anymore and he stops.

Irah sways side to side, brow furrowed as she wraps her arms around herself and meets Mako's eyes.

“What's the matter?” he asks, kneeling before her.

“What if they don't want to see me?” she says quietly.

“Of course they want to see you, Irah. They've missed you too.”

“Are you sure?” Irah asks. “Are you sure?”

“One hundred percent sure. Chief's honor.”

She doesn't look quite convinced but she starts walking again and he counts that as a win.

Mako doesn't bother knocking and goes right in, because the car is parked out front, and knocking alerts them to People Who Are Not Family, with Irah trailing behind him.

“Lin?” he calls, and,

“Kitchen!” is the answer. Sure enough, Kya is leaning her chair back as she perused the paper, and Lin is at the stove making tea.

“What are you doing here so early?” she asks, neither of them paying him much attention. “Don't you have an active investigation going on?”

Mako coughs in answer and Kya and Lin both look up at the same time to see Irah peering around him.

Kya's mouth drops open as Lin softly says,

“Irah?”

Irah lifts a hand in a tiny wave and doesn't meet their eyes as she steps around to the side of Mako.

Lin moves first, but Kya quickly follows as Lin wraps her arms around Irah.

“We missed you so much,” he hears Lin whisper, and Irah chokes on sudden tears, holding on to them both.

“I missed you, too,” she says, pressing into Lin.

 

  
xvi.

  
“You know I wouldn't ask this of you normally,” Mako says to Bolin into the telephone. “But a situation just arose at the United Republic Bank and I gotta be there - can you pick up Irah from school?”

“Of course, Mako! You don't have to sound like you're sending me to Ba Sing Se, Irah's school isn't much of a detour from the soup kitchen, and you know I won't pass up an opportunity to see her,” Bolin replies enthusiastically.

“Thanks so much, bro, I owe you one!” Mako says, relief obvious in his voice, hanging up.

“Kuruk! I'm heading out for the day!”

“I'll grab your coat, boss,” calls the cheerful Water Tribe boy from across the room. Bolin grabs his coat when Kuruk tosses it to him, flings it over his shoulder and trots down three flights of stairs.

A year or two after Kuvira, Bolin had used some of his money from the movers to buy an abandoned building in disrepair, fixed it up, and started Big Brother Bolin's, a soup kitchen, mostly, but he works with the kids that come in, too. He likes to think that over the years he's done a lot of good. Jade and his boys, Kun and Hasu, usually came over after school and help out. He knows the other kids that come in like to see them. He likes that.

He also really likes the fact that Mako has basically adopted Irah. His big brother does a lot of good for the city as police chief, but it's nice to see him actually taking time off.

Irah goes to the same school as Wan and Torak, or did, until Wan left to spend the year with the Air Nomads, and Torak, to the South Pole and his grandparents. She has a few friends, mostly kids who made friends with her, as opposed to the other way around.

She is waiting by the gate, leaning on the chilly steel bars, nose buried in a book he knows she had read a million times, _Digging Deeper: A Study in Badermoles_. He whistles - a small rock digs into the bottom of his shoe that wasn't there earlier. He spots a tiny smile pulling at the corner of her mouth and he retaliates with a piece of concrete covering the toe of her shoe.

“Bolin!” she exclaims, darting through the gate and barreling into his side.

“It's my favorite badgermole-loving earthbender!” Bolin exclaims back, tucking Irah against his side. “Good day at school?”

Irah nods, stepping carefully over the cracks in the sidewalk. She yanks on the edge of his coat and gives him a confused look.

“Oh, why isn't Mako here?”

Irah nods, looks back to the cracks in the sidewalk and waits for his answer.

“Well, he said he had something important to take care of at the United Republic Bank. I think there might have been a break-in, or something.”

Her eyebrows furrow as she frowns at her feet, and then she darts away down the street. The Bank is only a few blocks away from the new police headquarters, and the new police headquarters is only a few blocks from Irah's school, and Bolin knows for a fact that Irah is very quick and has plenty of stamina re: years on the street. Also, he's seen her play tag with the hoard of children at Asami and Korra's.

“Irah!” he shouts as he takes off down the street after her.

Irah knows he won't be able to catch up with her in time to stop her, and she's this close to where Mako is right now, and she really wants to have his back. She's not stupid - being a cop, first of all, is a dangerous job, even more so when you're the top dog, the big man himself, cop.

She darts around the corner and into the crowd of civilians clustered around the barriers set up by the police, book bag banging against her hip. She reaches the edge of the crowd, pressed against the barrier and spots Mako standing exposed in the middle of a half circle formed from squad cars, megaphone raised to his mouth. Irah yanks off her right shoe and slams her foot down to get a feel for the situation.

 _Fuck_ , she thinks and then, _shit, Mako would kill me,_ and then, _get your head in the game, Irah._

“We have you surrounded! Step away from the hostages and drop the money and your weapons. Exit the building slowly and without assault, or you will be restrained!”

There's a handful of people inside the building standing in a loose line in front of the unlucky people who were in the bank when they showed up. The possibility that they aren't affiliated with any gangs is there, but Irah is willing to bet money those thugs in that bank are part of a gang. Top options: Creeping Crystals vs East Side Badgermoles.

Considering the woman charging towards the door moving in firebending forms aimed right for Mako, Irah is pretty sure it's the Badgermoles. They've had it out for him for a while now.

“We have you surrounded!” Mako begins again. There are a handful of officers on top of the building immediately beside the bank. The woman has reached the door. The glass shatters outward, lighting arcing towards a stunned Mako - _he won't have time to redirect -_

“Dad!”

Irah barely remembers moving, darting under the barrier, taking a short leap, raising her fists as she bends one knee into a lunge and pulls.

The asphalt rises in a wave, curling over Mako's head as he is knocked to the ground by the force of the explosion, protecting him as he tumbles to a stop. The Force rush on the building, encasing the lightning bender in rock as the rest of them storm the building and apprehend the robbers.

She slips past whatever officer tries to grab her, darts across the road to where Mako is rolling over, groaning as he wipes soot off his face. There's a cut on his chin from a shard of glass.

“Dad!” Irah shouts again, dropping onto her knees despite the scrape.

Mako rolls onto his knees, one hand reaching blindly for her shoulder.

“Irah, what the hell are you doing here?” he rasps.

“Are you okay, Dad?” Irah sobs. Mako pulls her into a hug.

“Yeah, I'm okay. You saved my life. What are you doing here?” His questions are a little out of order and he had hit his head, but he seems to be okay.

“Irah!” Bolin bursts through the barrier, runs over to them and drops to his knees. “You can't take off like that! Mako, you okay? Here's your other shoe, Irah.”

It occurs to her now that she is still only wearing one shoe.

Mako pulls back, one hand firmly on her shoulder, the other, pointing a finger at her.

“Never do that again. You could have been killed. Why didn't you go home with Bolin?”

“You coulda been in trouble,” she says seriously.

“Yeah, but that's interfering with police business, you can't do that.”

“But Lin does it all the time,” Irah pouts, reaching to hug Mako again. “I'll go home with Bolin now. But you gotta be careful, Dad.”

Mako brushes her bangs out of her eyes.

“I will.”

 

  
xvii.

  
“I hate math. I hate it so much. Math can die.”

Mako resists the urge to smile at Irah's grouching as she bangs her head lightly on the kitchen table.

“Math can die in a ditch,” she says like its an epiphany,  talking apparently to the ceiling as she spreads her hands, “and no one would complain. Imagine the headlines, Dad. Math Found Dead in Ditch, Celebrations Break out Worldwide.”

He does snort at that, and tosses down his pen.

“Ever consider that Math doesn't like you much?” he asks her with a smirk.

The laugh that bursts out of Irah's mouth is loud and delighted.

“It probably doesn't, and I don't blame it.”

  
“Well, like it or not, it has to be done, I'm afraid,” Mako says apologetically.

“Yeah, I know,” Irah huffs, stretching her feet out underneath the table.

She doesn't know how much time has passed when she hears the door unlock and open. Lin appears in the doorframe, a sack of sweet buns on top of a stack of files in the crook of her elbow. She sets her load down on the table and Mako reaches for the bag immediately but Lin knocks his hand away, pushing the files toward him and the bag toward Irah as she passes to put some water on.

“So Irah gets buns but I don't?” Mako pouts.

“Are you fourteen and underweight?” Lin retorts, something pulling around her lips that Irah knows is a fond smile, and she snorts a laugh into her hand.

“Yeah, Dad,” she rejoins, shaking her head. “Come on.”

Mako pulls a face, mock-affronted.

“I'm being ganged up on. I should call the police - _oh wait._ ”

This has Irah in stitches and Lin smacks the back of Mako's head. When she sits down with a cup of tea steaming in her hands she announces,

“The twins are in town.’

Irah's head shoots up and her mouth drops open. Then she launches out of her chair, slapping her palms down on the table and leaning towards Lin excitedly.

“Really?”

Lin huffs a laugh.

“Be a little more excited, kid. Kya told me they just got in last night.”

Irah whirls on Mako without missing a beat.

“Can we go visit?” she demands. Mako huffs a laugh.

“Sure. You gotta finish that work first.”

She never gets a chance. All at once, there is a clatter, someone laughs loudly, the door bangs, and Torak, Wan, and Korra tumble into Mako's kitchen.

And then it's chaos.

Torak, Wan, and Irah are all yelling over top of each other, elbowing each other to get closer, all trying to talk at once.

Korra whistles once, sharply, loudly enough that all the taxis in Republic City probably turned their direction, and all the yelling stopped.

“One at a time, children,” she admonishes with a grin, and then walks forward and picks the three of them up in a massive hug. “Be good for Uncle Mako,” she says, darting out of the apartment as said Uncle Mako chases after her indignantly, yelling about abandoning children.

And then Irah can get a good look at how her friends have changed.

Wan is lean and tall and wears an odd mixture of Republic City and airbender, his silky hair tied back in a half bun at the nape of his neck. Torak - Torak is just as tall as Wan, and they still have the same eyes, and the same nose, and the same jaw, but Torak inherited the Water Tribe beef, apparently, and he had a new haircut - wolftail on top and the sides were shaved.

“Did you get the mark of the stupid?” Irah blurts into the silence. Lin coughs suddenly, abruptly stands, and steps out after Mako and Korra.

Torak has an incredibly offended look on his face as Wan dissolves into helpless wheezing, somersaulting into the air as his brother shoves him.

“You too, Irah?” he asks, but he can't stop the grin spreading across his face and he steps forward, picking her up in a hug. It must be a hereditary thing, then. “I missed you.”

“I missed you, too! You too, Wan!” she adds, when he lands on his feet again, wiping his eyes.

“Mama told us when you came back,” Wan says, more serious than he had been before. Irah sucks her bottom lip in and bites.

“We were glad,” Torak says, laying a hand on her shoulder. Then his face lights up. “Hey, guess what? We're old enough to wander around town.”

“Pssh,” Irah scoffs. “Town is nothing. Still weird weather. Kinda dirty. You only think it's exciting because you didn't live on the streets as a kid,” she says, shooting them an amused look.

Wan and Torak look at each other for a moment, thoughtful. And then,

“Maybe,” they say, same time, same tone, “We're sheltered kids.”

Irah laughs.

“I missed you guys.”

 

xviii.

  
The first time Irah sees Mako in the hospital bed, she is fifteen, and her chest seizes and she's pretty sure she's going to drop to her knees right then. Half his face is bandaged, more bandages peeking out of the collar of his hospital gown and he is too, too pale.

She can't breathe - one hand finds Lin's and the other finds Kya's.

“Grandma,” she starts, but doesn't say anything else as Lin pulls her tightly to her side.

“Do you want to leave?” she asks, fingers carefully, softly threading through Irah's trimmed bangs. Irah swallows hard - she is not afraid to see Mako like this, she will not be -

“No.”

Irah treads the seemingly endless, spotless white tile to the side of Mako's bed on silent feet, reaches tentatively for his wrapped fingers. A sob lodges itself in her throat.

“Dad,” she gasps, sinking to her knees. “Dad, come on, please.”

There's the sound and feel of feet moving at the doorway. The rattle of a curtain. She is alone with Mako - her father. She's not sure she wants to be alone with him right now. She's not sure she wants to be with anyone right now.

Sure, there had been times when Mako came home limping, or bleeding a little, or clutches his ribs - but he came home. Shaking, she rises to her feet. One hand tracing the edges of Mako's sheets, Irah reaches the foot of his bed and snatches up the clipboard listing his injuries - regrets it immediately but makes herself keep reading as her chin wobbles and a tear leaks out of her eye.

  
\- _Second degree burns on left side of face_

_\- Second degree burns on upper chest and collarbones_

_\- Multiple broken ribs on right side, bruising and abrasions_

_\- Multiple bruised ribs on left side, multiple cuts and abrasions_

_\- Broken lower arm on right side_

And that wasn't close to the end. He had been caught in an explosion, too close, slammed into a wall after taking a beating from the gang members. It makes Irah's chest feel tight, squeezing like someone had her ribs in their hand and was crushing them. Vaguely, she sees herself stumble back to Mako's side and drop to her knees again, resting her cheek on the slightly scratchy sheets, hand held tight in her own.

  
“ _Dad_.”

 

“Blasting jelly is a son of a bitch,” Mako rasps as soon as he is conscious enough to speak. Irah's head jerks as she wakes and her eyes widen when she see him moving.

“Dad!” she shouts, darting forward.

“Wait, don't-!” Mako starts, lifting the hand, previously held by Irah. Freezing in her tracks is very difficult and she ends up rattling the hospital bed and Mako as her hips hit the frame.

“Sorry!” Irah exclaims, slapping her hands over her mouth.

“Hey, no, it's okay,” Mako says laboriously. He turns his raised hand over, palm up for her to take. She does. “How long have you been here?”

She lifts a shoulder.

“I dunno.” Irah points over her shoulder. “Lin and Kya and Bolin and Korra and Asami are outside.”

“You can go get ‘em,” Mako says, a tiny smile pulling at the tape keeping his bandages in place. He squeezes her hand before she goes. “Glad to see you.”

Irah squeezes his hand back gratefully, before going to get the others. The curtain surrounding Mako's bed is mostly shut, but open enough she can slip through without rattling it. She knots her fingers in the hem of her shirt as she crosses the floor to the double doors that separate the ICU from the waiting room. She's pretty sure Mako knew he might end up in the hospital, because he took her to stay with Lin and Kya. Looking back, she's also pretty sure that the majority of the times she stayed with them, Mako was doing something dangerous and potentially hospital-admitting.

In the waiting room, Asami is curled in Korra's lap, and Korra is leaning her head on Bolin's shoulder. On the opposite wall, Lin and Kya are holding hands. All of them look like they haven't slept at all, and it's confusing when Irah sees that the clock on the wall reads four-thirty a.m.

“He's awake,” Irah begins, getting everyone's attention like she thought. “He wants to see you, but I don't think everyone can go in at once.”

“We'll go first,” Korra says, getting to her feet, sliding her arm around Asami's waist. “That way we can get out of your way, back to the kids.” The corners of her mouth pull down. “We're just his friends anyway.”

Bolin jumps to his feet, steady as ever.

“You're his family, too, Korra, Asami. I thought you knew that by now.”

Neither of them said anything, but Korra leans her head on Asami's shoulder and gives Bolin a weary smile as they leave.

Irah waits until she hears the ICU doors open, the shut, before she moves over to Bolin and sits next to him.

“How long has it been, Uncle Bolin?” she asks. Bolin wraps a hand around her shoulder.

"You got here around eleven. Mako had just gotten out of surgery.”

“Tell me what happened.”

And he carefully explains what went wrong, exactly, until Asami and Korra stop by the doorway to say goodbye. Irah isn't sure if she feels better after hearing what happened, or worse.

“Go sit with Lin,” Bolin says as he gets to his feet. “After I see Mako, I need to go home too. Opal would've been here but she had to take care of the baby, you know.”

Irah nods, wordlessly getting out of her chair to cross the floor and get into one next to Lin.

“Do you want to go home afterwards?” Kya asks, presumably to both of them, but Irah answers first.

“I’m staying. I’m staying until he gets moved out of ICU.”

Lin doesn’t lift her head from Kya’s shoulder but caresses the back of Irah’s head.

“Do you want us to stay?” she asks, and tries to hide the tiredness in her voice, but there are a few people in this world Lin can't find things from, and Irah is slowly becoming one of them.

“I'm fifteen, Grandma. Go home,” Irah says, sliding her hand into Lin's.

Lin and Kya are with Mako for longer than Bolin. The clock reads five am when they tell her goodbye, and she watches the sky turn purple and peachy through a window in the hallway when the healers make her leave so they can change his bandages and shit. Her breath fogs the glass and the red sweater she wears is baggy and covers her hands and thighs. She draws a smiley face in the fog, then swipes it out with a sweatered palm and walks back up to the double doors. Peaks in.

They aren't done with Mako yet and before she can decide what to do next, her stomach growls loudly. Okay then. He'd be so upset with her if she didn't eat. She doesn't want him to be alone, though. But he's not really alone, the healers are with him. And Irah knows for a fact a few cops are stationed along the entrances and it wouldn't take long to run down to a restaurant across the street to pick up some dumplings.

She waves at Ling, who is slumped in a chair, one leg crossed over the other at the ankle, holding the newspaper in one hand as she nods back with a small smile. Irah stops by the officer on her way back in, carton of dumplings carefully cradled in one hand.

“Your dad doing okay?” Ling asks, propping her elbow on the back of her chair. Her short hair is messy in a way that almost looks intentional, but Irah knows is not. The officer had a habit of yanking her fingers through her hair when she is stressed or tired. Irah also knows all the officers are worried about their chief.

“I guess,” Irah shrugs, poking at her dumplings with her chopsticks. “They were doing… stuff… when I left for breakfast. Grandma go home?”

“Yep. All the rest of your family, too.”

“Any sign of problem?”

“Sky's are clear, Chief,” Ling grins and snorts when Irah scowls.

“Don't call me that,” she grouses, going to cross her arms before she remembers her dumplings, and goes for a pout.

Ling laughs and stands, stretching and popping her neck.

“You should probably head back up.”

Irah makes a noise in her throat in agreement as she heads for the stairs, stirring her dumplings absentmindedly.

“Hey, Irah!” Ling calls a moment later. Irah glances over her shoulder. The officer yanks at the ends of her hair again. “Hey, uh… can you let us know when we can come up and see him?”

“Sure, Ling,” Irah says with a small smile.

When Irah reaches Mako's floor, Iroh is leaning against the wall opposite the doors and she stops in her tracks. She still isn't sure what the proper protocol is, if there even is any, for when the prince of the Fire Nation is also your dad's boyfriend. It's confusing and while their short conversations have gotten less awkward, she still has no idea how to start one.

Thankfully, she doesn't have to.

“Irah,” he says, relief in his voice, as he pushed off the wall and comes over to her.

“They won't let you see him yet?”

Iroh shakes his head.

“They said in a few minutes.”

Irah looks down at the carton in her hands, then holds it out.

“Hungry?”

“...Yeah, actually,” Iroh says.

When the nurse comes to tell them they can come back in, Irah and Iroh are sitting with their backs against the wall and legs stretched out in front of them passing the carton between them.

Irah scrambles to her feet first, brushing her hands off on her pants and holds out a hand for Iroh, unnecessary as it might be, but he takes it anyway.

“He's in here,” Irah tells him, pulling back the curtain. Mako is propped up and awake and he lights up when he first sees Irah, and then Iroh steps in and his mouth drops open.

Iroh hesitates as he steps forward, just for a moment.

“Mako.” He says his name so quietly Irah thinks he didn't mean to say it outloud at all. She sort of feels like she's intruding when Iroh carefully cradles Mako's bruised head in his hands and shuts his eyes. Then she definitely feels like she's intruding when Iroh leans down and kisses Mako slowly, tenderly. “I came as quickly as I could,” he says after he pulls back, brushing his thumbs across his cheekbones, one covered, the other not.

Mako says nothing for a few moments, breathing laboriously. Then,

“I'm glad you're here.”

“Like I'd be anywhere else?”

He pushes Mako's hair back, brushes his lips across the two stitches on the cut splitting his eyebrow. His non-casted hand reaches for Iroh's and grasps it tightly.

“It's not safe,” he says, finally opening his eyes, voice soft. “They're too brash. Too arrogant. And they almost killed me.”

“No,” Iroh starts to argue immediately, but Mako won't let him finish.

“Listen to me, listen to me,” Mako says, a tint of desperation seeping into his tone. “They're trying to kill me. They have for a while. Iroh, I need you to understand. My job - it's more dangerous than ever. The Badgermoles aren't the only gang, there are - so many, Iroh. I can't, I can't, I - Iroh -”

He's so tired. He doesn't know how Lin did it for so long. He hasn't even been the Chief that long - he doesn't know how he can carry on, not when he just wants to live his life with his daughter and the love of his life, but it's his duty to protect the city and its people. Always has been, ever since he became a cop. He can't turn his back on them but neither can he put his family, tiny as it may be, in harm's way.

Mako can't help the tears that inevitably fall. Wants desperately to curl into Iroh's side but he can't even do that. He can only lay helpless in the stupid fucking hospital bed.

“I - and I can't…”

Iroh collects the tears pooling in the corner of Mako's eye on the pad of his thumb and says in a pained voice,

"You don't have to, you don't have to. Mako.”

He didn't mean to make Iroh cry, and he is when Mako opens his eyes.

“I have to protect you. I have Irah to protect and I -” he stops, regains his breath. Reaches to wipe Iroh's eyes and runs the tips of his fingers along the sharp line of his jaw. “I want to protect you both. Need to. Have to.”

“I don't need protection,” Iroh says, tilting his head into Mako's hand with an impression of a smile deepening his dimples.

“Maybe not,” Mako agrees. “Doesn't make me want to protect you any less.”

“Ever think you might need some protection of your own? There's a reason your captains put some of your men in the hospital. We're making sure you make it out of this ordeal alive.”

“Me ‘n Iroh are gonna protect you, too, Dad,” Irah declares, stepping back into Mako's curtained room.

Mako tilts his head down from Iroh's to look at her and she is taken aback by just how tired he looks. Exhausted. It makes her realize just how much he does need his own protection, more than he realizes, than any of them do. He has taken the security of the city more seriously than the security of himself and while she hates the fucking gangs running around the city that put her father in the hospital, she hopes he can see just how much he himself need protection too.

Opening his mouth as if to argue, Mako reaches out his uncasted hand for her, shuts his mouth. Opens it again and says her name, as if it is only the beginning to whatever else he is going to say.

But he says nothing else as Irah crosses back over to his bed and takes his hand.

 

**Author's Note:**

> anyway so next chapter is gonna be like fuckin uuuuh mako and his new daughter working out the kinks and the last chapter is gonna be bigger irah like teenager irah
> 
> also she's more like ten, but she's just smol

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [and here, somehow](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17043641) by [braigwen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/braigwen/pseuds/braigwen)




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